Wheesung Gets 3 Days In Military Jail For Having A Cell Phone: Sentence Will Delay Singer's Release From Army Until August 9

By Jesse Lent | July 30, 2013 05:41 PM EDT

(Photo : Facebook)

R&B singer Wheesung has apparently had a hard time playing by the rules during his mandatory enlistment in the South Korean Army.

Three weeks after a military court cleared the star of all charges that he had abused the drug propofol, Wheesung has been sentenced to three days in a military prison for illegally possessing a cell phone.

"Wheesung used his cell phone while he was at the hospital for a herniated disc and hair loss, and he has been sentenced to three days in military prison for that," a legal representative for the singer from Giant Law Firm explained.

"With this, his [honorable discharge] date of August 6 has been pushed back to August 9."

Although the army strictly forbids soldiers possessing or using cellphones, the singer received a reduced sentence in light of the fact that he was making the calls while receiving treatment for a herniated lumbar disc in his back at the Korean Armed Forces Capital Hospital, according to the website TENASIA.

According to his lawyer, Wheesung was using the phone to attempt to prove that he was innocent of the drug abuse charges.

"The fact that Wheesung used his cell phone not at the training facility but at the hospital, the fact that he used his cell phone to talk to witnesses who would prove his innocence on the propofol case, the fact that he didn't harm the security of his reserve, as well as the fact that he had been working hard and had been respected as an assistant instructor were all taken into consideration [to make his sentence lighter]," said the singer's legal representative.

Mainly used an anesthetic, propofol is perhaps best known for causing Michael Jackson's fatal overdose in 2009, when it was mixed with the psychoactive drug benzodiazepine.

"The army prosecution acquitted all charges on the Wheesung case," Wheesung's attorney Son Su Ho explained, following the army verdict earlier this month.

"[Several witnesses testified] he did not receive injections of the psychotropic drug illegally. Even the doctor who is on trial for administering illegal doses of propofol testified that Wheesung did not use the drug illegally."

All eligible males between the ages of 18 and 35 currently must enroll for between 21 and 24 months of army service in South Korea (the length of mandatory enrollment changes by several months depending on which branch of the military that they serve in) in a practice known as conscription.

After entering the military in 2011, Wheesung served as a drill instructor in the city of Nonsan in South Chungcheong Province.

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